Bergtannen 1920

This is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s ‘Bergtannen’, and it’s made using etching, that’s where you scratch into a metal plate to make an image. Looking at it, I feel like I'm inside Kirchner's head as he's looking at the landscape. You can see the jagged lines, like he's trying to capture the feeling of being in the mountains more than making a perfect picture. He’s really going for it with all those sharp, scratchy marks. The way he uses line is so raw, it’s like he's wrestling with the image, trying to pin down something wild and untamed. It reminds me a bit of other artists like Munch, who were also trying to express intense emotions through their art. There is a conversation happening between them, across time. And that’s what painting is: a way to keep talking, even when we don’t have the right words.